For Grand Duke Fasaburon, making such a demand was perfectly natural. When two noble houses joined through marriage, the bride's side certainly had the right to demand that the groom expel or banish his former concubines, so as to avoid any obstacles to the newlyweds and the future inheritance of the family, while also preventing the legitimate sons born of the primary wife from facing hostility and harm from illegitimate children during their long years of growing up.
Just like when the third prince of the former Krisen Empire, Andinak, married the beloved daughter of the Meleian Grand Duke — the third prince had banished his four former concubines, one of whom was the daughter of a minor noble and had borne him an illegitimate son. She refused to leave, relying on the merit of having given the prince a son. In the end, to ensure the success of the marriage alliance with the Meleian family, the old emperor had a cup of poisoned wine administered to her, and sent the two-year-old illegitimate child away, never to be heard from again…
A formal marriage alliance between two noble houses not only signified equal standing, but was driven even more by family interests. The first two demands put forth by Grand Duke Fasaburon were made with his own family in mind. All told,
Lorist remained silent…
Grand Duke Fasaburon was pleased. "Someone, bring wine and food. I want to have a few good drinks with Rock."
"Apologies…" Lorist said. "Your Highness the Grand Duke, I cannot agree to this."
"…What did you say?" The Grand Duke turned his head with slow, slow disbelief. His finger had been pointing forward to summon a servant, but now it was frozen in place like a dead tree branch that refused to bend back.
"Your Highness the Grand Duke, your third demand — I cannot agree to it." Lorist raised his head and spoke firmly to Grand Duke Fasaburon.
Grand Duke Fasaburon stared intently at Lorist's face for a long while before letting out a hoarse laugh. "Heh, heh, heh… Norton… Count… my lord, you — you're joking with me, aren't you?"
Lorist shook his head. "I'm telling the truth. To me, when I took them as my concubines, they became my women, and I became their man. Men of the Norton Family do not abandon their women. And I believe Silvia will understand my thoughts."
*BANG!* Grand Duke Fasaburon slammed his palm down savagely on the long table beside him. The poor table instantly shattered into pieces and fell to the floor. The Grand Duke rose to his feet like a volcano holding back its eruption. "Whether Silvia understands is her business, but this is my demand, the demand of the Fasaburon Family. Are you prepared to refuse?"
Lorist stood up just as tall, showing no sign of backing down. "The one I care about is Silvia, not the Fasaburon Family. I have already agreed to your family's first two demands, but I absolutely will not allow the Fasaburon Family to reach into the Norton Family and interfere with our internal affairs. You have no right to demand that I exile my women!"
Grand Duke Fasaburon was trembling with rage. "You... you petitioned our family to wed Silvia, yet you refuse to give up those women of yours. Is... is this what you call caring for Silvia very much?"
"Is it contradictory?" Lorist smiled. "I care for Silvia, which is precisely why I will take her as my principal wife. She will become the mistress of the Norton Family and will have everything that position entails. But at the same time, she must also follow the traditions of the Norton Family. If she is to be my wife, then she must learn to take good care of my women. That is her responsibility as the mistress of the Norton Family."
Well, this was Lorist brazenly laying out his intention to maintain a harmonious harem.
"You... you... you shameless!" Grand Duke Fasaburon was so furious he nearly spat blood onto Lorist's face. What did they take the Fasaburon Family for? Their most precious flower was to be married into the Norton Family and still had to learn to take care of his women? And this was called the responsibility of the mistress? Preposterous! If word got out, where would the face of the Fasaburon Family go? They weren't some down-on-their-luck noble house! They were the Fasaburon Family, the lions that shook the northeastern steppes!
Grand Duke Fasaburon glared at Lorist, the imposing aura around him rising steadily. His right hand had already tightened around the long sword at his waist, as if he very much wished to draw it and cleave Lorist in two with a single stroke.
Lorist's hands hung at his sides as if in a relaxed manner, but his feet had already subtly shifted into a ready stance, prepared at any moment to meet Grand Duke Fasaburon's thunderous strike. If looks and aura could become tangible, the space between the Grand Duke and Lorist would already be filled with thunder, lightning, and flying sparks.
"Count Norton, exiling your concubines and your illegitimate children—this is the demand of our Fasaburon Family, and it is a condition that must be met for you to marry Silvia. At the same time, it is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your sincerity to her. If you cannot do this, I will consider it a provocation to the patience and tolerance of the Fasaburon Family. As her grandfather, I absolutely will not permit her husband to have other women and children..."
Grand Duke Fasaburon finally forced down his anger, remaining silent for a long while before speaking again.
"My apologies, Your Grace the Grand Duke. As I have said, I cannot do this. This is not a matter of whether or not I can form a marriage alliance with your family — it concerns the most fundamental responsibility of a man. Exiling one's own women and children is the mark of a man's shame. I absolutely will not do it."
Fasaburon waved his hand dismissively: "Count Norton, go back. I hope that after you return, you will give careful consideration to the three demands I have made. Only when you have fulfilled them will I agree to give Silvia to you."
Lorist took three steps back and performed a half-bow with his hand over his chest. He was just about to turn and leave when he stopped again: "Your Grace the Grand Duke, perhaps you should also consider this — if I were to abandon my women and children in order to marry Silvia, then who could guarantee that I would not someday abandon Silvia for some other woman? So..."
Before he could finish, Grand Duke Fasaburon flew into a towering rage, snatching up ornaments from the desk beside him and hurling them at Lorist: "Get out! Get out of here!"
Lorist fled with his head in his hands...
Upon scrambling out of the Rose Palace and seeing El and the others waiting at the entrance, Lorist suddenly froze in his tracks. He stroked his chin thoughtfully: "That's strange — how did that old man Fasaburon not draw his sword and hack at me? Very odd. Even if I did lose my head at the end and said the wrong thing to enrage him, he only threw things at me instead of drawing his sword. Isn't this old man supposed to have a notoriously short temper? And he's a Level 3 Great Swordmaster — he shouldn't be afraid of me. Something's not right..."
However, El and the dozen or so guards had already come forward leading the horses, so Lorist could only swallow his many concerns and head back to the inn for the time being.
Count Kenmais was sitting in the inn's lobby waiting for Lorist's arrival. The moment he saw Lorist walk through the door, he jumped up and grabbed Lorist's arm: "Did Grand Duke Fasaburon summon you about Princess Silvia's marriage?"
Lorist nodded.
"Did it work?"
Lorist shook his head and shrugged. "I don't think so, since I didn't agree to his three demands."
Count Kenmais was stunned. "Three demands? What three demands did he make?"
"The first one — the Grand Duke wants our family to assist him in investing and setting up ten workshops in the Pasture Plains Province, requiring that the Fasaburon Family territory achieve self-sufficiency in daily necessities within two years…" Lorist recalled.
Count Kenmais jumped to his feet again. "No way, absolutely not! That's practically pulling the Snow Salt Trading Company up by the roots! Locke, you don't know this, but the thing the steppes need most is daily necessities. The margins are small, but the trade volume is enormous. The Snow Salt Trading Company already has a monopoly on daily goods in the Pasture Plains and Eastern Wasteland provinces — two-thirds of our annual dividend profits come from right there. The goods other merchants bring in are neither as good in quality as ours nor as competitive in price, so they've long been driven out of the market. And now that Grand Duke Fasaburon has taken over the Greater and Lesser Jin Rivers — a gold-producing region — I was actually thinking about raising our prices a bit to squeeze out some extra profit…"
Then Count Kenmais suddenly deflated. "Still, marrying Princess Silvia takes priority. We can discuss this later. That old fox Fasaburon obviously doesn't want us earning money off his family's territory — or maybe he's got his eye on the daily goods trade profits himself, which is why he's demanding that you help them build so many workshops. It's fine. If we lose this source of profit, I'll think of something else and find ways to increase margins on other goods…"
"The second demand — he wants our family to provide him with ten thousand sets of the standard equipment worn by my personal guards…" Lorist continued.
Count Kenmais erupted once more. "That's too much! This old bastard is insatiably greedy…"
The standardized armor worn by Lorist's three-thousand-strong guard battalion was indeed different from the armor of the family's armed soldiers. Although the family soldiers were equipped with fine steel armor, its defensive capability was still slightly inferior to the standardized armor of the guard battalion. The two shared the same design but differed in color — the family soldiers' standardized equipment was lead-gray, while the guard battalion's was blue-gray, a color exclusive to the guards who served at Lorist's side.
Count Kenmais, Baron Philim, and
Now Viscount Brun opened his mouth and asked for ten thousand sets. Count Kenmais was furious: "Has this old bastard gone mad? What an outrageous demand — isn't he afraid of choking on it? Ten thousand sets comes to nearly two million gold Fordes. Is he selling Princess Sylvia or something? Even when the Third Prince married Grand Duke Melein's daughter, it only cost two million gold coins — and those were Imperial gold heads, which works out to only seventy or eighty thousand gold Fordes. How can he even say it with a straight face, demanding you pay such an enormous price to wed Princess Sylvia? That's why you refused, isn't it?"
Lorist replied, "I've agreed to both demands."
"I… what—" Count Kenmais was choked speechless, and it took him a long while to recover: "F-Fine, fine. Your Norton Family is wealthy and bold, I'll give you that — you'd even agree to such unreasonable demands. So let me guess, the third demand is even more absurd?"
"Not really. His third demand is that I exile my concubines and their children. Only then would he consent to the marriage alliance between our two families…"
Good, but I actually felt a sudden sense of relief. I imagine Philim and Shahin felt the same upon hearing this. We'd never have to worry again about the pact between our four families being torn apart by the ever-strengthening Norton Family…
Lorist forced a bitter smile: "But now I have no idea how to break the news to Princess Sylvia."
Count Kenmais chuckled as well: "Locke, all I can say is — our deepest condolences. We'll be right here in the audience, watching the show and cheering you on…"
"You've got to be kidding me — is this what allies are supposed to do for me? I might as well dissolve the pact then."
"Can't do that. You're the leader of our four-family alliance, and it was you who proposed the pact on behalf of the leading party. So as long as we don't withdraw, you can't dissolve it — unless you want to disgrace the Norton Family and abandon the honor of the nobility." Count Kenmais said this with a straight face.
"Since when does that work that way? I don't believe for a second that I can't dissolve this pact…"
"Reporting, my lord — there is a messenger from Grand Duke Visabrun outside requesting an audience." A guard entered and interrupted their banter.
"Oh? Show him in." Lorist was curious — what could the Grand Duke want with another messenger now that he had just returned?
The messenger was an ordinary guard, not a noble: "Count, I have come on the Grand Duke's orders to inform you that due to the Grand Duke's poor health, the banquet originally scheduled for tomorrow to celebrate the success of the knightly tournament will be cancelled. The Grand Duke asks for the understanding of all the lords present."
Count Kenmais was dumbfounded: "That can't be right. No matter where a knightly tournament is held, a grand banquet is always held afterward to honor all the participating knights and nobles. It's tradition — how can the Grand Duke simply cancel it on a whim?"
Lorist let out a cold laugh: "Grand Duke Visabrun's magnanimity is rather lacking. Just look at this tournament he organized — setting aside the archery and swordsmanship competitions, first place in both was swept by our Norton Family. Right away, in the decisive bout for the tiger championship, our Lorist took first, Baron Fillim second, Baron Shahin fifth, and Elir seventh. Not a single one of the remaining victors was from the Visabrun Family. Other than having successfully hosted this tournament, the Visabrun Family doesn't have a single noteworthy knight to speak of. What exactly is there for him to celebrate?
Had he successfully arranged a marriage alliance with our Norton Family, he could have made a great show of it. Now that I've rejected his proposal, why would he want to watch us victorious knights flaunt our glory at the banquet and parade the prestige of the four great Northland families? So he simply cancelled the banquet — and saves a good deal of money in the deal… Now I finally understand why he didn't draw his sword and fall out with me when I refused his demand. Heh heh — it turns out he's still counting on the supply agreement for standardized equipment that our family signed with him, afraid I'll cut off his arms supply…"
"Will you cut off the arms deal?" Count Kenmais asked.
"No." Lorist shook his head. "That was an agreement signed beforehand, and we will honor it according to its terms. This concerns the Norton Family's credibility — it's not something to be decided by my personal whims.
Now then, let's pack up our things tonight and leave first thing tomorrow morning. We won't miss one banquet. If nothing else, we can hold our own celebration once we're back in the Northland. Once word spreads that the Grand Duke doesn't intend to hold the banquet, everyone will be disappointed — there may even be a few small disturbances. I'd wager the Grand Duke will have to call in troops to drive the wandering knights out of the city tomorrow. We'd best leave early."
The next morning at the crack of dawn, Lorist and his group departed Windbury, the royal city. The journey was somewhat slow, as they were escorting nearly two hundred members of the Bonnaval knight family — and his retinue — who had pledged allegiance to Baron Fillim. After linking up with the regiment-plus force led by
A wisp of dust rose in the distance, and three riders galloped up at a full sprint. Upon seeing Lorist, they jumped from their saddles. "Knight Shrade has sent us to report to you, my lord. Princess Sylvia arrived at Castle Rock five days ago."
…… (To be continued.)